Plant for feeding metallurgical furnaces.



, PATENTED -MAY'17,' 1904. A. P. GAINBS & ,B. R. 00x, J3. PLANT FORFEEDING METALLURGICAL FURNACES.

. uruonmn rum) JAN. 21,1904.

up 110mm. a sums-sun's.

LJ E n i .3 "1 v WfT/VESSES: Q Q v Vgzvrgs,"

m: Moarus urns co.. PMOTD'WNQ, wwmmon, o. c.

material to blast-furnaces,'and more especially Patented May 17, 1904.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AMBROSEP. GAINES, OF BESSEMER, AND EDWIN R. COX, JR, OF BIR- MINGHAM,ALABAMA.

PLANT FOR FEEDING METALLURGICAL FURNACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters. Patent No. 760,189, dated May1'7, 1904.

Application filed January 21, 1904 Serial No. 190,068. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, AMBROSE P. GAINES, a resident of Bessemer, andEDWIN R. Cox,

ing is a specification.

Our lnventlon relates to plants for feeding to improvements in suchplants as embody vertical hoists for elevating the car or otherreceptacle containing the material to the top of the furnace fordeliveryof the material thereinto; and our essential object is to soconvstruct the hoist and appurtenant devices that they may be installedwith least expense and operated with the greatest economy, while be- Iing adapted for ready application to existing vertical hoists.

hoists were built prior to the general introduction of the skip orincline hoist, and it eninvention.

furnaces for the incline hoist, often necessitails a very large expenseto reconstruct such.

"tating a new furnace, because the old shells are generally too thin tosupport the weight of such incline or skip hoist. Our invention, whichsecures all the advantages of the modern skip hoist, can be applied toall such furered merely nominal- 7 We attain the object indicated bythenove construction of furnace-feeding plant and denaces at a cost sosmall as may well be considtails thereof, as hereinafter described with;

more particularly pointed out in the claims.

vation of a blast-furnace plant embodying our Fig. 4 is an enlargeddetail show- 1n the drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional ele-;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof. Fig. 3 is a sectional detail of thetop of the furnace.

vertical structure 1 of the hoist is connected at the top by a bridge 3with the furnace-top 2, upon which bridge the usual track f is laid,extending from the upper landing or platform of the hoist over the topof the furnace, so that material may be dumped from the car 5,t'raversable on the bridge between the hoist and furnace, said carpreferablyv dumping from its side into the hopper and over the bell.This track is preferably inclirieddownwardly toward the furnace, so thatthe car 5 when released from the cage 6 at the upper landing may run" tothe furnace bygravity,

suitable buffers, as upwardly-turned rail ends of the track 4, stoppingthe car in proper po- 1 sition over the hopper, where it is held by aspring-actuated pivoted latch 7enga'ging a fixed part on the car, as theaxle, until released by the operator to permit the ear to be returned tothe cage after its contents have been dumped into the furnace. Nearlyall furnace plants using vertical' The cage structure 6 comprises avertical closed frame 8, (see Figs. 5 and 6,) having top, bottom, andside bars or'pieces, and preferably supports a short section of track 9,inclined to the same grade as the track 4 and adapted to be brought intoalinement therewith when the cage is hoisted to the upper landing by itsrope 10, attached to the upper bar or piece of the frame 8 and operatedby a suitable hoisting engine or windingdrum, (not shown,) but of commontype. The rail ends of the track-section 9 are preferably provided withinclined guide-plates 33, which are adapted to engage the rail ends ofthe track 4 on thebridge 3 and bring the the operator to permit the carto run down the track or to be pushed or hauled to the furnace-top andautomatically engaging and locking said car in place on the cage whenreturned for lowering to receive another charge, and a pivotedspring-pressed buffer 31 opposite each wheel serves to check the carwhen it is drawn back upon thecage. The car may be automaticallyreturned after the latch is released to its cage by a counterweight 27,suspended from a rope 28, running over a pulley 29 and having a hookwhich the operator attaches to a' hook 30 on the car before he releasesthe latch on the cage to let the car run down to the furnace, or anysuitable power mechanism may be used for this purpose, as well as forrunning the car to the furnace. The cage is preferable provided with adouble set of guiderollers 11 and 12, rotating in suitable bearings onthe side bars of the frame 8. These rollers bear upon the faces andsides of the guides 13 of the hoist structure and restrain the cage intwo horizontal directions at right angles to each other. The cage islowered to the lower landing, which is preferably below the floor-level,so as to permit delivery of the stock into the car, Where it is heldstationary on the cage, either from cars or buggies running on saidfloor or from chutes 18 of opentopped bins 14, 15,16, and 17, fed bycars 32* on tracks extending over said bins in the stock-house. Thechute 18 is provided with a suitableswingingor sliding gate 19, whileeach binhas an opening communicating with said chute 1-8 and controlledby a suitable gate 20, the walls of the bins being inclined, so as todirect material toward such openings and chutes. The bin structure andthe chutes 18 are sufficiently above the floor-level to permit cars orbuggiesto travel to the edge of the pit 22. so that the cage-car may becharged .from such buggies or cars as well as from the bins, the latterof which, however, we prefer to use, the buggies being used whenever oneor more of main bins should be short of material to convey stock fromother storagebins maintained for such emergencies.

Carried by the cage is a chute 21, fixed to the vertical frame 8, saidchute being so adjusted that the stock may be delivered directly intothe car from either the chutes 18 or cars or buggiesrunning up to theedge of the pit 22.

The sides of the car 5 are provided with lugs or. bosses 28, adapted toengage the top of the standards 2 1, supported upon the platform 25 ofscales 26, so that the car will be entirely supported by said scaleswhen the cage is at its lower landing and the contents of each chargeconveniently weighed before hoisting.

In the operation of our improved hoist it will be observed that the caris held stationary on the cage at itslower landing, so that it may befilled and weighed without involving the extra labor and expenseheretofore necessary in running the car or buggies to different placesfor filling either by mechanical or manual means and returning the sameto the cage, and it is by this construction, in-

eration over the vertical hoists heretofore used, whereby all themechanical advantages of the modern skip are secured in a vertical hoistwithout the great expense involved in the application of the latter toblast-furnaces.

In the drawings we have shown two hoists and two tracks, one on eachside of the furnace, all the elements of which are identical inconstruction and mode of operation, so that the description of oneapplies to the other, and it may be noted that the tracks on the bridgesare located so that the cars dump from the sides directly upon the bellin the hopper, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, thus securing evendistribution of the stock.

It is evident that all the operations at the top of the furnace may bemade automatic, if desired; but as onenian is required to operate thehoist and his best location, as at present in the vertical hoist now inuse, is at the top of hoist and furnace, from which position he controlsthe hoisting-engine, it is considered better and greatly less expensiveto have the release of the car and its transfer to and from the furnacecontrolled by him. Furthermore, this position gives him opportunity toinspect the bell and see that it is kept properly cooled and not injuredby the heat and to note whether it is working properly, gage the heightof the stock, watch the distribution of stock, and generally observe allthe workings and guard against accident and imperfect feeding anddistribution of material.

We claim. as our invention 1. In a plant for feeding materials tofurnaces, the combination with a furnace, of a. vertical hoist, a bridgeconnecting the furnace with said hoist, a cage operating in said hoist,a car carried by said cage and adapted to traverse the bridge to thefurnace for discharging materials therein when the cage is at its upperlanding, one or more bins provided with chutes arranged to delivermaterial into the car while held stationary on the cage at said landing,and means for weighing the loaded car at said lower landing beforehoisting, sub stantially as described.

2. In a plant for feeding materials to furnaces, the combination with afurnace, of a vertical hoist, a bridge connecting said hoist with thefurnace, a cage operating in said hoist, a car carried by said cage andadapted to traverse the bridge to the furnace for discharging its .loadinto the same, one or more bins provided with chutes arranged to delivermaterial into the car while held stationary on the cage at said landing,and weighing-scales at the lower landing provided with means forsupporting the car free from the cage for weighing the loaded car beforehoisting, substantially as described.

3. In a plant for feeding materials to furnaces, the combination with afurnace, of a vertical hoist, a bridge connecting the hoist with thefurnace, a cage operating in said hoist, a car carried by the cage andadapted to traverse the bridge between the upper landing of the hoistand the furnace for delivering materials thereto, and one or more binsprovided with chutes arranged to deliver material into the car whileheld stationary in the cage at its lower landing, substantially asdescribed.

4. In a plant for feeding materials to furnaces, the combination with afurnace, of a plurality of vertical hoists, bridges connecting saidhoists with the furnace, a cage operating in each hoist, a car carriedby each cage and adapted to traverse the bridge between the upperlanding of its hoist and the furnace to deliver material thereto, andone or more bins having chutes arranged to deliver material into eachcar while it is held stationary in its cage at the lower landing,substantially as described.

5. In a plant for feeding materials to blast furnaces, the combinationwith afurnacef of a hoist for elevating material to the furnace, a cageoperatingin said hoist, a charging-car carried by the hoist, a chutefixed to the cage and arranged to direct material into the car while itis held stationary on the cage for loading, substantially asdescribed.

6. In a plant for feeding materials to furnaces, the combination with afurnace, of a vertical hoist, a bridge connecting the furnace and hoist,a cage operating in the hoist and provided with an inclinedtrack-section,

bins provided with chutes arranged to deliver material into the cagewhile held stationary on the cageat its lower landing, substantially asdescribed.

7. In a plant for feeding materials to fur-' naces, the combination witha furnace, a vertical hoist and a bridge provided with a trackconnecting the hoist and furnace, of a cage carrying a track-section forholding a car, and

inclined guide-plates on therail ends of the by suitable gates, a chuteinto which the separate bins are adapted to discharge throughthe bottomopenings of the bins and arranged to direct material, intoa charging-carat the lower landing of each hoist, and tracks above the bins over whichcars may travel for feeding the same, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification inthe two subscribing witnesses.

AMBROSE P. GAINES. EDWIN COX, JR.\

Witnesses:

J. B. FLOYD, F. B. HILL.

presence of I

